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User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V4E11 - ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL - Impressions/Recap
So, we're at the probably-penultimate episode of the season... Retrospective There are quite a number of threads that need at least a present resolution, and also threads that feel ignored. Overall, the Volume seems very focused on building up the next Volume instead of trying to stand on it's own and get anything done, but at the same time it seems to be desperate to get that build-up done in time. Like I've mentioned before, Yang's, Weiss's and Oscar Mayer's development felt rushed, given how they skipped their development somewhat. Never saw Yang's difficulty with the arm the first few days, never saw Weiss fail at her first few Summon attempts, never saw Oscar start thinking leaving was the right choice. Cinder and co. have barely even appeared or done ANYTHING of importance, Merc hasn't even spoken yet. Watts is a ghost and the most Hazel has done is give Oscar a free ticket, appearing for like 1 minute after spending 9 episodes without an appearance. Raven came for 1 episode, had a small talk, and left, and hasn't done anything since then. Not to mention we have barely even heard of Vale, let alone the other kingdoms, since the first 1/3 of the Volume. Even less of the Hunters, like CRDL, SSSN (sans Sun), FNKI, Glynda, and especially the fragging Winter Schnee. And the few bits that are revealed have little-to-no foreshadowing for the most part. Qrow's Semblance being Bad Luck, Ren's Semblance being Zen Injection (Though it at least fits his personality a bit, better than Qrow's), Oscar being related to Ozpin for X reason, and so on. And in other areas, we get no explanations. How did Ren and Nora manage to leave Kuroyuri or what did they do after that? Why did Bob and Steve, Gods of Light and Darkness, leave the 4 powers of Creation/Destruction/Knowledge/Choice in the world? Why are the Grimm attacking humanity if they were also made by Steve? Why is Oscar related to Ozpin enough for him to merge with him? ---- Overall, this Volume feels....disapointing, in retrospective. The fights lack Monty/Shane's magic, the plot threads take longer than they need to to get to the important parts, much is ignored if not skipped, some things come out of the blue for no good reason, and so on. So in the end, compared to V3, the fights are not as awesome for the most part, and the writing is actually worse. Assuming this Volume really will be just 12 episodes long, there's only this and the last ep remaining. There's no way they can wrap things up well in such short amount of time. It's like it gave up and just wants to pass the baton to V5. What can we expect to see done in this short remaining time? ---- Language of Truth: Red means Truth, Fact, in the eyes of the user. Blue means hypothesis, guessing, wondering, pondering, and anything in between. Now, let's prepare for the semi-finale. 1. "That is Disappointing" We begin our episode with Cinder starting to become badass once again. More precisely, by killing the Grimm's equivalent of Ratattas: Beowulves. FireSlash1.png V4 11 00001.png FireSlash2.png FireSlash3.png V4 11 00002.png V4 11 00003.png DogSlayer1.png DogSlayer2.png V4 11 00004.png Of course, she isn't quite badass yet. As we can see right afterwards, Cinder seems kinda tired...despite only doing a few Fire Slashes, far weaker than what she did against Ozpin and Pyrrha without problem. And along with being more fatigued... she's also less attentive and cold than before, getting surprised/scared from a surprise attack by THE MANLIEST GRIMM YET, Winston. TiredCinder.png V4 11 00005.png|''WINSTON SMASH'' V4 11 00006.png RoastedMonkye.png Granted, Winston was reduced to ashes in a single hit, but still, MANLIEST GRIMM YET. Then Salem comes into scene. V4 11 00007.png|''Is that all, girl?'' V4 11 00008.png|''You can do better than that.'' Similar to Ep2, we get to see Salem in a bad mood, questioning Cinder's desire to be powerful like she said back in Vol.3. And similar to in ep2, she mixes the questioning with advice, telling Cinder what she must do to master that power. ...Or at least she was going to, but someone interrupts by opening the large door at the end of the long hallway. TyrianArrived.png|''She'll forgive me, She'll forgive me, She'll forgive me'' That someone being... TyrianCryed.png|She'llforgiveme, She'llforgiveme, She'llforgiveme V4 11 00009.png|SHE'LLFORGIVEME SHE'LLFORGIVEME SHE'LLFORGIVEME Tyrian, crying "she'll forgive me" like a little boy who lost his frisbee, while the scorpion tail kinda ragdolls behind him. Although compared to last time, the way he says it sounds more like an attempt to reassure himself. First thing Salem does right then, is ask him about his task, which he can only say he failed. He mentions how he (bullshitly) managed to poison Qrow, hoping for that to please Salem enough, but... V4 11 00011.png|''The last eye is blind...'' V4 11 00010.png SalemEmblemOnClothing.png|''...You disappoint me'' Tyrian then starts crying harder, like a little girl who just saw her dog die in her face. TyrianDespaired1.png|*Crying intensifies* TyrianDespaired2.png|*Crying Intensifies Harder* TyrianDespaired3.png|*Crying Intensifies Even Harder* A Beowulf approaches to eat him, but... V4 11 00012.png TyrianCountered1.png V4 11 00013.png TyrianCountered2.png TyrianCountered3.png TyrianCountered4.png V4 11 00014.png V4 11 00015.png All while the tears turn to laughs. He keeps beating the Beowulf up all night long, while Cinder expresses mild discomfort. ---- There's something...strange about Tyrian's..."reaction" when he was attacked. He was still crying and all, his face was screaming despair, but he still, without flinching, countered the dog and beat it up. The despair only turns to joy after he starts doing so. ...The way he reacted...it looks like pure instinct. Muscle Memory, in a way. Like he does it unconsciously. It gets me thinking...the easy answer is that he's crazy, which is believable-enough to me, but that reaction makes me wonder other ideas... Maybe Tyrian is that afraid of death? And the way he switches from despair to joy mid-beating makes me wonder if he's just a sadist, or if his crazyness is the result of something. Maybe some thing inside him that pushes him to fight when threatened, and stimulates pleasure from doing so? The possibility reminds me of an idea I had long ago, not RWBY-related. Some syndrome or virus that made one gradually gain a desire to kill. Medicine existed to help resist the urges, but without them, should one spend too much time without killing, their sanity would drop until they did. In extreme cases, it even made one a temporary cannibal with little awareness of their actions until it's too late. I wonder if Tyrian has something along those lines... Of course, he could've just been venting his frusfration and anger on the poor puppy. 2. All Patched Up and Ready to go Now we return to Patch. Something many people predicted was that Yang would put on the arm before the end of the Volume. So she did. Another thing many people predicted was that she would paint the arm to evoke Ember Celica's colors. So she did. V4 11 00020.png|''"There, all done."'' V4 11 00019.png|''"Mmm...I should add some vinyls later..."'' Now, the arm looks good in yellow, though I don't feel like it looks as good when she's wearing it with those colors, compared to with it's original silver color. Afterwards, she heads to a garage, where we get to see... V4 11 00021.png|''Alright, time for you to see the sunlight again'' V4 11 00022.png|''I've missed you so much, my baby'' V4 11 00023.png Bumblebee, her precious bike, once again. There are 2 things I want to say about this: 1-It kinda looks more orange than it was before. V4 11 00023.png|You... YangBike.png|...Decide 2-I really, really, really like that orangish tone, both it's original and it's current version, that Bumblebee has. I would've loved for the arms to be that color. Then... V4 11 00024.png|''If you're gonna ditch your old man'' V4 11 00025.png|''At least do so in his face'' The following conversation indicates Yang's "recovery" is finished, at least to the extent she can do more than mope nihilistically. Taiyang knows she's going to leave, and says this time, he won't stop her. However, he does ask her: Where, exactly, does she plan to go? She wants to find Raven, and he knows Qrow told Yang more or less where she's been recently. At the same time, they both know Ruby's headed to Mistral. And while not mentioned by him, Yang probably wants to help stop the WF, if not "Cinder's" group. Overall, it is pretty much stated in all but words that she'll be going to Anima, to Mistral. Raven is there, and so is Ruby, so it kills 2 birds with 1 stone. And unlike RNJR, she has a motorcycle so she can traverse the land much quicker. Really, where else would she go? 3.1. Chill Out, Bro Now we switch to Weiss Schnee, who is now trying to escape...and not by jumping out the window like some expected. StealthyWeiss.png|''Seems no one's here'' V4 11 00026.png|''Now, time to leave'' Now, I'm no expert, but, I'm sure she could've chosen more practical clothes for stealthing her way out. At least other footwear. NinjaKlein1.png|''Now I just have to find'' NinjaKlein2.png|''KleinnnNNNNNNNN!!!'' NinjaKlein3.png|''Shh'' They walk through the different rooms that we saw in Ep2, with the same angle and still looking extremely 2D compared to the characters. V4 11 00028.png|''Unbelievable.'' WalkingOn2D.png|''Months later, and they still haven't improved that ceiling'' But then... MasterWhitley1.png|''Alright, let's keep-'' V4 11 00029.png|''Oh, Whitley's calling, hang on.'' MasterWhitley2.png|''Master Whitley! I...Um...'' MasterWhitley3.png|*''Klein, would you bring me some gummy bears, please?* MasterWhitley4.png|...Yes, of course. I'll be just a moment'' Loving Weiss's faces in that scene. A whole roulette of hilarious. They go separate ways, with Klein telling her that he'll meet her in the Library. And Weiss, for whatever reason, decides to pass by her father's study on the way. You know, the office of the last person she would want to see her. She overhears a discussion between Rustedwood and Jacquelope. Wood tells Papa Schnee that he needs to control himself, apparently based solely on a report Jacques's daughter gave him. Since I seriously doubt Weiss could send a letter in her present situation, it must've been Winter. V4 11 00030.png|''You need to calm your balls, Jacques!'' V4 11 00031.png|''I think you should look at yourself in a mirror, James!'' While the thought is appreciated, Ironwood is being plain stupid; not only does he take Winter's word entirely at face value, but it doesn't sound like he's considering the potential bias in the letter or the possibility of Winter making the problem seem bigger than it is if not downright cherry-picking the facts to make Jacques look worse than he is, nor does he seem very willing to hear Jacques's side of the story. On the other hand, it's Jacquass, so the distrust makes sense. Especially since, according to him, Winter is one of his best, and unlike Jacques, she's not an asshole. Now, I then, rather quickly, turn out to be wrong about what the report was about, however. Apparently, it's not about Jacques slapping/Imprisoning Weiss. Nope. Winter told him about a threat in Mistral; people are mobilizing, while weapon and Dust trade is conspicuously high. JJDiscussion1.png|''Someone is making a play, and I don't trust that Leo will be able to stop it'' Now, this is an important namedrop. Leo. All things considered, I believe it is clear who he is: Haven's Headmaster, and the Cowardly Lion. Now, why would Ironwood not trust Leo to be competent enough to do anything, I don't know, but considering Mistral's government has been all-but-stated to be incompetent, I'm not surprised. This is where things get more interesting, however. Jacques basically calls Irownood a paranoid lunatic who can't trust anyone. After Ironwood basically screams that he is a paranoid lunatic "for good reason", Jacques, inmediately, drops the mocking, assholish tone, and instead sounds more serious, maybe a bit scared, as he tells Ironwood to "get a grip". JJDiscussion2.png|''No, I don'trust anyone, and I have very good reasons for that!'' V4 11 00032.png|''Oz should've listened to me from the start'' JJDiscussion3.png|''....Hey now, chill out, bro. That desk was new, you know'' And given what he states inmediately afterwards, Jacques has a point: JJDiscussion4.png|''But I'm not like Oz. I'm not going to sit down and do nothing.'' JJDiscussion5.png|''Atlas's borders will be closed down. No one goes in or out without the Council's permission'' JJDiscussion6.png|''You mean, without your permission?'' JJDiscussion7.png|''I think you'd prefer to be on my good side from now on.'' He's going to start an oppressive dictatorship, and that never ends well. RWBY vs Atlas arc incoming? As he tries to leave, Weiss locks the door with a black Glyph, then runs to the Library as Rustedwood starts bashing the door. 3.2. So Long, and Thanks For All The Abuse Weiss finally reaches the Library. V4 11 00037.png|''Klein, where are you?'' V4 11 00038.png|''Be quiet now, here I am'' V4 11 00039.png|''I told you I would be here.'' Weiss inmediately drops her case and weapon and hugs him, and the 2 have a heartwarming conversation. Klein asks her if she thinks Mistral is safe, which she replies with "No". Kinda obvious; can you imagine the danger of the daughter of one of the richest men in the world going to a place like that alone? Even if she was disinherited, I doubt those news have traveled fast given the lack of internet. Weiss still is decided to go there, since that's where Winter apparently is (Would've been nice if it had been at least mentioned before). Klein says that she's probably the only family Weiss has left, but Weiss pretty much states: BetterThanFamily1.png|''I'll always have you'' BetterThanFamily2.png|''...Yes you will'' Afterwards, a loud sound is heard, making it obvious Ironwood managed to get out, and Jacques calls Klein to clean up the mess. He tells Weiss to go now, and Weiss's weapon and suitcase suddenly appear in her hands...even though she dropped them...quite some steps of distance away. Even as she crouches, we can see clearly she didn't pick up anything, the weapon and suitcase were already in her hands. WeissItemsInconsistency.png|Note the distance. WeissItemsInconsistency2.png|Suddenly in her hand?! After thanking Klein, he closes the door and Weiss inmediately frowns. 4. You Won't Be Alone Dammit Now we go back to Polystralia, and are met with the sight of shirtless Sun Wukong. V4 11 00043.png Well, injured shirtless Sun Wukong. Still, eye candy is still candy. Blake then, instead of saying something like "what were you thinking" or "are you ok?", starts telling Sun that it's for things like this that she's a Forever Alone. V4 11 00044.png|''I'm done seeing my friends get hurt because of me'' Which is....kind of radical considering that before Sun, only 1 person ever got hurt because of her: Yang. Kinda whiny, all things considered. Ruby saw 2 friends (and 1 enemy) die in her face in 1 night and is still going with no complaining and hardly showing guilt once. Blake saw a friend be shocked but still alive, 6 months after seeing a friend be disarmed but still alive, and suddenly she's done with it enough for a scene like this. So whiny. ForeverAloningSucks1.png|''I'm done with this. I'll make my own choices and deal with the consequences'' ForeverAloningSucks2.png|''Because those consequences belong to me'' Sun, however, then points out she's not being selfless. Indeed, she's being egocentric about it; she hates seeing her friends hurt because of her, but they are the ones who choose to fight for her. ForeverAloningSucks3.png|''Yes, your friend kicked my ass'' ForeverAloningSucks4.png|''But I regret nothing, because I managed to protect you'' ForeverAloningSucks5.png|''And I'm definitively sure Yang would say the same'' Paraphrased, of course, but he does say it along those lines. Interesting...how do I interpret that? Black Sun shipping Bumblebee? ForeverAloningSucks6.png|''You can make your own choices, sure'' ForeverAloningSucks7.png|''But so can we. And when we fight for you, it's because we choose to do so'' ForeverAloningSucks8.png|''So stop pushing us out!'' ForeverAloningSucks9.png|''That hurts more than anything else we could suffer'' V4 11 00045.png|''And next time I see that Illya, I'm going to kick her-'' V4 11 00046.png|''Ow ow ow, my shoulder'' Then, suddenly... V4 11 00047.png|''My hero :3'' V4 11 00048.png|''Oops'' V4 11 00049.png|''This was an accident, I swear'' Alexander explains that Blake and Sun were right to be suspicious. Somehow, at some point, Alexander found out Adam Taurus was, apparently, planning to take over the WF, then go re-enact Volume 3 on Mistral and Haven. DestroyWFNOPE1.png|''Not if we stop them. We must destroy the White Fang!'' DestroyWFNOPE2.png|''No'' AreYouSeriousSun.png|''wat'' V4 11 00053.png|''We are going to take it back'' 5. Death Flags Rising Now we go back to the Black Lily, Guroyuri. We first have Ren and Nora running on Kuroyuri, apparently having gotten there, somehow, before the Nuckelavee did, somehow, without being noticed or running into it. Which means they went around it in a curve away-enough from it for it to not notice them at all. I'm no expert, but, then, considering they also had to go down the mountain, it should've taken them longer than it seemingly did, meaning the Nuckelavee, who went there in a straight line unhindered by the trees, should've gotten there before them unless it was going at a snail's pace. Now, Ren is especially relieved when they see Jaune and Ruby are ok, though Jaune is still shitting his pants from the noise. V4 11 00055.png|''Oh, thank Bob, you're still alive!'' V4 11 00056.png|''Ren, did you hear that?!?!'' And soon after, Ren starts shitting his pants as well...and so does the audience. Xcept me cause I like things like this. OMGRen1.png|''No...'' V4 11 00057.png OMGRen2.png|''No!'' V4 11 00059.png OMGRen3.png|''NO!'' V4 11 00060.png Conclusion Like I expected, this episode proves the Volume was meant to build, not to resolve. Unlike what I expected however, WBY's arcs are practically finished and they have already decided to leave to Mistral. I thought that would happen next episode, in the finale. Speaking of Mistral, I'm not entirely happy about all of them going to Mistral. The whole team reuniting so soon feels...well, too soon. And it kinda hurts the potential of each RWBY member being active in a different place, allowing us to see more of the world as the story develops. We have never seen Vacuo, even though Monty supposedly really wanted to show us that kingdom. We have not seen Atlas at all since all of Weiss's story took place in the Schnee Manor. We have not seen current-Vale either. It's just a waste of potential. Besides, what do they do after reuniting? Either fail to stop Adam, making the whole thing seem more hopeless and just re-enacting Vol.3, or they succeed...and then what? Go straight for Salem? Go to another Kingdom and deal with the threat there? ---- 1-...I'm starting to think they really were overhyping some characters for this Volume. Watts, like I said, has done absolutely nothing so far after ep1, hasn't even been mentioned, despite being in the opening with as much prominence as Tyrian and Cinder. Hazel and the Albains are barely better. The Beringel also has done nothing beyond a small 3-sec appearance. RT could've, you know, shown RNJR or Qrow fighting a Beringel, even if just a small fight. But noooo, "We should put a Beowulf over there! And another one! And one more! Maybe an extra one there!". ---- 2-Tyrian sounds more like "happiness is suffering" the more I rewatch that scene. ---- 3-Sigh...I never expected myself to start liking Jacques more than Ironwood. The former may be a jackass and the latter is a badass, but the former at least thinks rationally most of the time, while Ironwood is swimming in Paranoia and making stupid choices. Alright, so something big is building up in Mistral. Alright. Now, how will blocking off all entrance and exit from Atlas without his authorization going to help? How will it help stop whoever is planning what from going through with their plan? How will it save the people of Atlas? I mean, blocking off entrance from Mistralians, alright, just to be safe. But from the entire world? That's just ridiculous. Not letting anyone leave? Unnecesarily dictatorial. Now I see why Ozpin didn't trust in him. Regardless of how hipocritical it was to ask for trust when not giving any, Ironwood does have trust issues that can get obstructive. It's like setting a room on fire to kill a single roach. ---- 4-Klein keeps showing his eye-chameleoness. We even see it change straight from Red to Brown at one point without him closing his eye entirely. Now we just need Neo to finally appear. Come on, RT, you promised us NEO! Give us V4 Neo so we can complete the Trinity of Eyeshifting! ---- 5-The animation when Klein and Weiss are walking seems...kinda mediocre. It looks like the usual walking animation but sped-up, making it look weird more than anything. Combined with them still looking like 3D figures walking in front of a 2D picture, it looks rather bad. ---- 6-There were some pretty funny faces this episode. Especially from Weiss. Some of my favorites. AreYouSeriousWeiss.png AreYouSeriousSun.png ScaredCinder.png SereneTyrian.png 7-Yang seems to think she's ready to go, but....how long do you think she'll last before breaking for a while? I mean, we never saw her deal with the PTSD, only return to fighting-condition. She'll likely crack once Adam shows up again. By the way, I thought Taiyang would go with her. I mean, he did say he would have to go look for Ruby eventually back in Ep4. Is he not going? Will we get no Tai-Raven reunion anytime soon? :C 8-We finally get a good look on the Nuckelavee. Well, on it's faces. I have to say, the Horse head doesn't look like a horse, and the Humanoid head looks more like a...demon chewing a marshmallow. I was expecting it to look more...creepy. The way the humanoid head looks like it's kinda funny actually. ---- 9-It seriously would be nice if RT wasn't lazy enough to NOT avoid at least mentioning a few things, like Adam planning to take over the WF, or Winter being busy in Mistral. Mentioning something in passing is miles better than not saying anything, you know. ---- 10-Mmm....by now, there are still characters that have barely even appeared despite prominence in the opening, things that were either not explained or partially explained, and questions still in the air. I'm thinking of making a blog once this season is over, where I write down the things that suffered those fates (counting the WoR's episodes). This season feels rushed every time more. ---- 11-Now that I think about it, the Nuckelavee appeared in the contrary direction to Ren and Nora. And they came from the entrance. ....How did the Nuckelavee get there so quickly and easily? The apparent routes both Renora and Nuckel seemingly took make this rather confusing. ---- 12-In hindsight, Whitley's pic in Jacquess's office was down. Wonder why... There's also a portrait of Young Jacques behind his desk, which I didn't notice before (or noticed and forgot). Category:Blog posts